Back when I taught group Obedience classes, I noticed a
difference in attitude between Obedience students and the students in my Tricks
classes. Students in Obedience tended to be more anxious, serious and
hypercritical. Students in Tricks classes were more relaxed, laughed more
often and were more forgiving of their dogs’ and their own learning
curves. I began to include optional tricks as homework assignments for
Obedience students but, less than half opted to train any tricks.
In later classes, I tried turning Obedience training into games. But, it
became apparent to me that many students who were there for “Obedience” were
not there for fun and games That was a long time ago and in retrospect,
the reason my students were not having fun was in due, in part, to my limited
experience as an instructor but also due to semantics.
Our choice of words is important. Traditional
obedience training trickled down from military dog training and some of us
still use military terms. “Obedience” means strict compliance with orders and
submission to rules. “Command” means to issue orders, dominate and control.
Those words give us an expectation of immediate, strict compliance and
the feeling that we need to dominate our dogs. No wonder we weren’t
having as much fun as the Trick classes!
There was no pressure to achieve in Tricks class because
it was not crucial if the dog could roll over, play dead or play the piano.
But, I think another reason for the attitude was the words we used. In
Tricks classes, we didn't command, we gave “cues”. We didn’t expect
obedience. We wanted
“performance”.
From the dog’s point of view, it’s all tricks. If you
are commanding obedience from your dog, try cueing your dog for performance
instead. And smile!